Thirteen Years And The Secret's Out
by spwarkle
Summary: The last time he saw her, thirteen years ago, she was seven months pregnant with his second child. Now, thirteen years on, he has been left to raise their first daughter alone. If only he knew who Lily had been tutoring. Naitlyn!


_**Another **_**one shot for you lot! If you're waiting, I have an update on the way for MRR, TI, UOTH **_**and **_**JGMT, I'm just attempting to fit them in around schoolwork and other commitments ; )**

**Of course, it's Naitlyn. What did you expect?**

Caitlyn stared at the piece of paper in her hands in pure shock, her mouth hanging wide open for almost a full minute before she could compose herself enough to yell, "Natalie Gellar get in here now!"

There was a loud clatter from the next room and the sound of hurried footsteps before the door flew open and the hurried thirteen year old girl appeared.

"What's wrong? Did you go into labour or something?"

"Nat, how could I go into labour when I'm not pregnant?"

"I don't know, you just sounded so alarmed that I panicked." Natalie paused to look around the room and, on seeing nothing out of the ordinary, slowed her breathing and pulled her dark brown curls into a knot at the nape of her neck. "So what's the problem?" Caitlyn silently held out the paper and Natalie grinned before she had even read it. "Surprise, Mum!"

"You knew?"

"What do you mean?" Natalie asked innocently. Caitlyn sighed and pointed towards box.

"Nat, you averaged one hundred percent in Maths, an A plus."

"I know."

"And you never told me?"

Natalie laughed softly. "I thought I'd surprise you, which I did."

"How did you do it?" Caitlyn carefully folded up the paper. "No offence Nat but you've always had problems with Maths, it's never been your strongest subject and you've always averaged at sixty or seventy before, your lowest score academically. How did you up it so fast?"

"I got in contact with a High School student my teacher kept babbling about and asked her for some help. She was really nice, she's been helping me for weeks and she makes it all so simple. And fun." She added as an afterthought. Caitlyn placed her hand over her heart.

"I think I need to sit down. Natalie Gellar enjoying Maths?" The tips of Natalie's ears flushed red with embarrassment and she rubbed the bridge of her nose uncomfortably. "You look so much like your Dad when you do that." Caitlyn said quietly.

"Yeah, my mysterious father." Natalie's cheerful mood seemed dampened. "You always bring him up at the best of times; when I got my first boyfriend, when I first read a whole book without any assistance, when I got my first phone, the first time I managed to get full marks in Maths. Thanks Mum, you're really good at judging the mood."

Caitlyn looked guiltily at the floor. "I know honey but every time you do something like that I think about how proud he would have been, even when you fell out of that tree and broke your wrist I'm pretty sure he would have been proud of you for climbing that high in the first place."

"If he was so fantastic why did you leave him?"

Caitlyn shrugged. "I don't know."

"Just forget it Mum. Apparently it doesn't matter who my father is; you fell out with him for something you can't even remember and now you just expect me to go on with my life without even knowing who he is!" Natalie's voice gave her away by braking at the very end of her last sentence, leaping up a few octaves. It broke Caitlyn's heart to hear her daughter so unhappy on the day they had received such good news.

"Nat, if I tell you what happened do you promise not to do anything stupid?"

Natalie's eyes widened and she nodded. Caitlyn dropped onto the chair behind her and closed her eyes tightly as she spoke.

"Your Dad and I were in love. We were young but we really loved each other. We met at college, he was studying Music and I was studying producing, we were paired together for a project and he asked me out on the second day. I accepted and, two years later, we were married." Caitlyn's eyes opened slowly and Natalie could see that her Mum was barely here, Caitlyn was off living the past all over again. "It was just over a year later, I was seven months pregnant with you, and we were bowling for your Grandmother's birthday. She was sixty and your Grandfather had invited us all around; your Dad, his brothers and their wives.

"We were midway through the second game when an argument broke our between your Grandfather and I. Your Dad tried to calm us down but I was stressed and hormonal and, although I don't like to admit it, I was also very blunt at that age. I was only twenty five. The argument continued until your Grandfather stormed off. Your Dad tried to calm me down for a good ten minutes but I was stubborn and I wouldn't listen. I eventually told him some thing I now regret and stormed off. I hid and waited until he had gone. I haven't seen him since."

The apartment was silent for a full five minutes. Natalie was sitting frozen in her seat as she absorbed the information and Caitlyn was just sitting still as tears streamed down her face.

"So- So you broke up over bowling?" Caitlyn could only nod. "What were you even arguing about?"

"It's not important honey."

Natalie immediately sensed another secret and narrowed her eyes. "What were you arguing about Mum?"

"Natalie, it doesn't matter."

Natalie stood angrily, her hands on her hips, anger flaring in her eyes as she stared down at Caitlyn. "If it didn't matter you'd tell me. Since you won't it's obviously something important."

"Natalie, I've just told you so much more than I ever intended on you knowing, don't you dare complain."  
"You know what Mum? I don't care! I would rather know none of the story than half of it!" Natalie turned and stormed out of the room. Seconds later the door to her tiny bedroom slammed shut and Caitlyn sighed, burying her head in her hands.

"Where are you Nate?"

_xOx_

"Dad, I'm home!" Fifteen year old Lily Gray strode into her house, dropping her bag onto the chair by the door and kicking her shoes into a corner.

"Hey honey," She heard her Dad call from the kitchen where, as usual, he was probably attempting to cook.

"How did we live before I could cook?" She questioned him, leaning around him to take the pan off of the stove before the stir fry was burnt any more.

"We lived on take out and by visiting other people Lily. What did you think?" Lily rolled her eyes as she expertly stirred softened vegetables around.

"Never cook again Dad, my taste buds aren't up to it." Nate shook his head and retreated form the kitchen with a laugh. Lily called him back just moments later as a thought occurred to her.

"What did you forget his time?"

"Nothing, I remembered something actually."

"Wow, that's a first. Tell me quick before you forget it again."

Lily grinned as she sprinkled some salt on the food. "You know that girl I've been tutoring, Natalie? Well her Mum has invited me around for dinner tomorrow as a thanks for getting her grades up and you can come too."

"What time?"

"Six I think she said. You'll like Natalie, she's a really nice girl and I think her Mum is just as nice." Lily smirked slightly. "Maybe you could ask her out on a date, she's been single for just as long as you apparently."  
"I thought you were supposed to be tutoring her, not talking to her about your personal life."  
"As you should have realised a long time ago, girls _always _find a way to gossip."

Nate rolled his eyes as he opened the cupboard o search for a glass to claim as his own. "So you've been plotting with a thirteen year old girl to set me up with her mother?"

"Yup, pretty much. Natalie says her Mum hasn't dated since before she was born."

Nate filled up his glass with water and leaned back against the sink. "I think she must have dated for Natalie to have come into existence."

"Dad, I'm not an idiot. I know how it works. I'm just saying that maybe you and Miss Gellar would be able to help each other open up."

The water that Nate had just consumed flew across the room. "Gellar?"

"Dad, I am pretty sure that this isn't the same Gellar you married. After all, if you divorced when I was two, Caitlyn would already have had to be pregnant with Natalie, which she wasn't, was she?" Nate's ears turned a deep red and his fingers pinched the top of his nose. "Dad?"

"Lil… if I told you that Caity was seven months pregnant when we divorced, what would you say?"

Lily just stared at him opened mouthed for a long moment before asking the last question Nate had expected, "You left her when she was pregnant?"

"I didn't leave her, she left me!"

"You let her go!" Lily's face curled into a rare frown. "You mean to say that you've left Caitlyn raising my little sister for the past thirteen years, all alone, because she was hormonal before Natalie was born? Dad how could you?" Nate didn't seem to have an answer to this and just stood limply in the middle of the room as Lily pointed out these obvious truths to him. "Hang on, so Natalie is my sister?"

Lily didn't wait for an answer. Instead, she raced into the hall and stared at herself in the full length mirror. How had she not seen it before? The physical resemblance between the two girls was obvious once you knew to look for it. They both had the same wild, dark curls, although Lily preferred to straighten hers out when she had the time, they shared the almost shaped eyes and both of them had incredibly slim figures, no matter how much junk food they shared at their tutoring sessions.

"Lily, honey, we don't know that Natalie is your sister yet. Not for sure. It could just be a coincidence."

Hearing her name set off bells in Lily's head. "No Dad, I'm sure she is. When you see her you'll notice the similarities between us, that gives it away, but listen to her name. Natalie. Natalie. Nat-al-ie. Could you get any closer to Nate?"

"Oh my god." Nate's eyes stared unseeingly towards the wall. "I'm a father."

"Hello? Has it really taken your fifteen years to realise that?"

"No, I mean… I'm a father again. I already knew but I never thought I would get to meet her. Or him. We didn't know…"

Sensing that Nate wanted some privacy, Lily crept silently along the hall to her room, closing the door behind her. She had a sister. A thirteen year old, crazy, loveable sister who didn't seem to have any idea that the two of them were related in any way. Lily had liked Natalie right from the start, right from the day she had received a phone call from the nervous young teenager about tutoring. Every session had been fun, the two of them had got on like a house on fire despite their age difference and now that finally made sense.

"I have a sister…" Lily muttered, her eyes widening and her hands reaching automatically for her laptop.

_xOx_

There was the sound of the doorbell and Natalie jumped up from where she had been lying sprawled out across the bed doodling on her homework for the past hour.

"They're here," she called to her Mum as she skipped passed the kitchen.

"Can you make them at home Nat? I don't dare leave this for even a minute or it'll burn." Caitlyn didn't even turn around, her eyes glued to the bubbling pot on the stove. Natalie just continued down the hall and opened the door.  
"Hey Nat." Lily greeted her with a wide smile but Natalie could see that she was also hiding some other emotion beneath it. Deciding it was none of her business she stepped aside to let the girl and her father enter.

Lily's Dad seemed slightly familiar to Natalie. He had a mop of deep brown curls and tanned skin that looked strangely pale. His dark brown eyes were wide and although they were in his pockets, Natalie could see his hands shaking.

"Natalie Gellar?" He asked. Natalie nodded and was shocked when the stranger pulled her in for a tight hug. Lily had to clear her throat before he let her go. "I'm Nate Grey; it's nice to finally meet you."

"It's nice to meet you Mr Grey. Come this way, my Mum will be through in a moment, as soon as she can leave dinner." Nate swallowed hard at this and Natalie led the guests into the living room, inviting them to make themselves at home on the sofa and arm chairs.

"I'll be right back, let me just go and get Mum." Nate and Lily nodded, smiled identical smiles at her.

"Nat, I was just coming." Caitlyn met her daughter in the hallway and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Let's go and meet this girl who has managed to help you."

The two entered the living room smiling brightly and Natalie's grin was the longest lasting of the four, only fading when she noticed the serious faces of her three elders. She followed Caitlyn's gaze to Nate and Nate's back to Caitlyn before looking towards Lily for an explanation and finding Lily already halfway towards her.

"We'll leave you alone for a while." Lily said loudly, taking hold of the top of Natalie's arm and steering the younger girl out of the room. "I'll explain," Lily promised. "Where's your room?"

Natalie opened the door to her bedroom and dropped onto the bed, sweeping the books and stationary onto the floor.

"What was _that_?" She asked, referring to the terrified expression on Caitlyn's face when she had seen her visitors. Lily perched on the edge of the bed uncertainly and took a deep breath.

"Natalie, promise me that you won't snap at me, or our parents. I only found out yesterday an-."

"_Our _parents?"

"Yeah. Our parents."

"As in…?"

"As in you and I are sisters."

"What?"

"Okay, I'll tell you everything I know and then you can ask me anything and I'll see if I know the answer."

"Go ahead."  
Lily took a few breaths and looked Natalie straight in the eye. "Okay. So seventeen years ago, Nate and Caitlyn met at college. They dated for a year or so and then they got engaged. A fem months later, Caitlyn discovered she was pregnant with me and of course, Nate stuck with her right the way through it. They got married when I was one and a half. It was on the day of their first anniversary that Caitlyn discovered she was pregnant again, this time with you.

"They were strong for almost the whole thing. It was right up until the last two months of the pregnancy. We went bowling for Nate's Mum's birthday and when we were there I began to misbehave, partly because I was exhausted. After about an hour Caitlyn had had enough of my tantrums and tears so she began to get me ready to go home. At that point Nate's Dad got involved, telling her that he didn't think it was fair to send me home because I was just tired. It escalated into a full blown argument with Dad attempting to calm them down.

"Eventually Caitlyn snapped and left in a rage. Nate grabbed me and chased after her but she had disappeared. Nate searched for her for a long time but he never saw her, he just received the divorce papers in the post three weeks later. He had no choice but to sign them for Caitlyn's happiness and that was the last time they ever had anything to do with each other."

"So you're my sister?" Lily nodded and Natalie gave a small smile before pulling her sibling in for a tight hug. "I never knew I had a sister before. I didn't know _anything _until a few days ago. I didn't even know that Mum and… Dad had been married."

"Really? I've known the story my whole life. Just never about you until yesterday."

Both girls pulled out of the hug at the same time with glossy eyes.

"Do you think we ought to check on Mum and D-Dad to make sure they haven't murdered each other?" Natalie asked. Lily nodded and wrapped her arm around the younger girl's shoulders as they crept down the hall.

Lily managed to peek through the crack in the door before Natalie and could see the two adults in a serious conversation, heir eyes locked and their hands unconsciously clasped together. The smiles on their faces gave away their happiness/

"I think they're going to need some time alone. They're talking." The two girls slid their feet silently into their shoes and Lily grinned. "Come on Nat, we have thirteen years worth of shopping to catch up on."

The sisters left the house together without speaking; words weren't necessary for the girls to understand that this was going to be the best shopping trip either of them had ever experienced.

**Okay so this is, very loosely, based on something that happened to me over the weekend. It was an argument at a bowling alley between a woman and her father-in-law but there isn't going to be a divorce or anything like this, they're on speaking terms again already. **

**Like I aid, very loosely based and sorry if you didn't like it. Tell me what you thought, I'll be happy even if you just say 'Gah!'**

**~Spwarkle**


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